Hi Mike.
The last line of your message quite possibly holds part of the answer
here... You may want to temporarily disable WEP encryption, and/or any
password access, while you are establishing your network connection
from your iBook, for the first time. (And then re-apply it soon after).
Often, determining/entering the correct WEP key, accurately (and to the
exact format required) causes the most problems.
Also, do you see any networks listed in your Airport menu?
And are you using a new location with only the Airport networking
enabled (at the top of your Network Configurations list)?
Have you tried picking up the network ('scanning' for it) using
NetStumbler or similar, to confirm that your iBook can see the network
at all?
My experience has been that if you wrap up all 4 of these points
together, you will soon be on the path to wireless happiness.
Just make a very concerted effort to re-establish ALL of your security,
password and WEP settings once you begin to make progress with your
iBook's wireless connectivity. Usually though, the WEP and other
security measures are the things that initially hamper your
connectivity. :-)
Cheers,
Derek